DVI and S/PDIF via HDMI?

[ixarka]

Hello all,

I'm currently in the market for an A/V receiver and am mapping out my requirements to ensure that whatever receiver I end up purchasing will have enough power for my speakers and for whatever video stuff I throw at it. One issue I've run into is how to hook up my PVR to the receiver.

I'm going to be building my own PVR which runs Linux and will have a digital tuner for over the air (ATSC) broadcasts as well as HD cable. The problem is that most computers don't have an HDMI (or component) output. Far more common is to have a video card which outputs DVI (or s-video) and then an audio card which has some form of digital audio output. Since I plan on watching/recording HD shows on this computer, I want to make sure the quality of the signal is maintained. It doesn't make sense to record a show in HD and then output it via s-video. The problem is that, while DVI->HDMI converters are pretty easy to come by, the receiver manuals I've been reading over make no mention of how one would get the audio signals to the speakers in such a setup. If I used the s-video out, then I could just plug the audio out into the receiver and all would be well. But when using HDMI, it seems like all of the receivers assume the cable is carrying audio as well and don't allow you to specify which input you're using for audio.

Are there any receivers out there that allow one to use an HDMI input for video and then a separate input for audio? I know this breaks the whole idea that HDMI is supposed to carry both audio and video, but I don't see what other option I have, other than going with the s-video out which would degrade the HD video quality. I also looked at DVI->component converters, but these seem really complicated (no doubt because of the digital to analog conversion they'd need to do). The receivers I'm looking at right now are the Onkyo 605/705/805 and the Denon AVR-2308/2808/3808.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, you certainly can send video via HDMI and audio via another method (such as a digital coax or optical). I remember helping someone here with that on their receiver. I think that it was a Yamaha. If you read through some of the manuals for the receivers that you're interested in (you can almost always get those from the manufacturer's websites), you should be able to find out if they can do it or not.

I'd flip through the manuals for the ones that you listed, but I'm off to bed for now.

In general, though, yes - it can be done.

 

[Tod]

That probably would have been me. I have no idea what you'll run into with a homemade device, but it worked fine for me. The new projector just arrived this morning actually, so I got to try it out and everything is just beautiful.